After a day of recovery, Spencer took me to the train station early in the morning to catch the 7.58 service to Union Station in LA. I was to meet up with Ani from Cyprus as she has recently moved to LA. The train arrived just 10 minutes late and I boarded with a wave from Spencer and made my way to the top deck of the train. The ride was quite comfortable and I dozed gently as the train slowly made its way.
I arrived at around 10 past 9 and located the main entrance where I had agreed to meet Ani, and we found each other without any problems. We headed straight for the red line to take us to Hollywood and I bought a one way ticket.
In no time at all we had reached our destination, and we spent a few minutes looking at the Kodak theatre, where the Oscars are held every year, and the Chinese theatre next door. There was some filming going on in the front of the Chinese theatre, so we watched that for a bit. We were on the hunt for some bagels for breakfast when we walked past one of the tour guides offering a tour of the stars' homes. We bought a couple of tickets and headed off in the direction pointed out to us by the guide to find a cafe for breakfast. Stomachs filled with bagels and cream cheese we headed back to the meeting point for our tour.
The tour lasted about an hour and a half and took us around the extravagant mansions of Beverly Hills and Bel Air. I lost track of the number of houses that we saw and actually who they currently, or used to, belong to, but the tour also allowed us a 20 minute walk up and down Rodeo Drive, which was fun, with Ani and me stopping every so often to pose for trouristy pictures.
Our tour of the stars' homes came to and end and we wandered around the area, taking in the length of the Walk of Fame, where I was surprised to see that they have already earmarked a star for little old me, as they know I am going to be a big star someday soon. They did a mock up for me to see if I would be happy with it and I advised them that yes, that would do nicely please, and could I have my start near to Fred Astaire's please?
The celebrities were out in force, all clamouring to have their photographs with myself and Ani, two obviously extremely well known members of the Premiere Group. But Ani and I brushed off their requests, letting them know that we were far to busy and famous and popular to have our photos taken with them. Brad was quite upset about not being able to pose for a piccy with me, but his mate George consoled him and the went off with Angie for a drink in the Viper room to cheer themselves up.
Ani and I dodged and darted through the streets until we finally lost the now mob-like crowd of celebrity fans and found a small joint to have a plate of nachos in, before heading back on the metro to go to Ani's house in Pasadena.
It was a short walk from the train station to Ani's house, and once we were there I drank a glass of delicious lemonade and had a little nap on Ani's bed.
Soon enough Ani's husband came home from work, and Ani lent me a pair of sky scraper heel shoes and we went off for dinner. Dinner was at a Japanese Gyu Kaku restaurant where you grill your own food. We started off with a japanese beer, and a bit of banter with one of the rather friendly locals called Tony, and then we moved to our table where Ani and I ordered a bottle of hot Sake and Areck took care of the cooking of the food. The food was great, with the meats being marinated in delicious sauces and coming off the grill very tender and tasty. We took our time over dinner and filled ourselves almost to the brim on the all you can eat menu, but leaving just enough room for some 'smores'. Ani and Areck explained to me the concept of 'smores'. It stands for 'some more' as in, 'I want some more' because they are so tasty. They are melted marshmallows that you get a special fork to melt them with over the fire (the fork is extendable - very clever to avoid burnt fingers) and then placing the melted marshmallow in between to buiscuits (crackers in american) and a slice of chocolate (hersheys). I am not a fan of marshmallow or hersheys chocolate, but I thought it would only be proper to give it a go. I chickened out on the marshmallow melting and didnt get mine to the gooey golden consistency that the others did, but it did melt the chocolate to a certain extent and I got the overall idea.
I only had one bite though and set the rest down. Ani had been promising to take me to a place called 'cherry on top' for desert so I was kinda holding out for that anyway.
We left the restaurant and took the short car drive down to 'cherry on top'. Cherry on top is a great place wher you serve your own frozen yogurt into a cup (I had some taster pots so I could choose which flavour I wanted - I chose belgian chocolate) and then in the middle of the place was a huge table full of bits and pieces that you could add to your frozen yogurt. They had strawberries and blueberries, and raspberries and any berry you could imagine. Mango, pineapple, banana, peanuts, walnuts, any other kind of nut you could want, chocolate sprinkles, hundreds and thousands, sauces, cream..... anything your heart could desire. I chose a combo of strawberries, mango and nuts, and then went to pay for the yogurt, which is charged by weight. It was great, a delicious end to the evening meal.
We then went home and chilled in front of rubbish American TV - but we did get to see the amazing ten year old opera singer on America's got talent. If you havent you tubed it yet, you should, it is quite unbelievable!
Areck's family had kindly set up a sofa bed in one of the rooms for me, so I crawled in to bed and drifted off to sleep.
The next day Ani and I woke after all the working people of the house had left and pottered around the house eating breakfast and I had a lovely cup of tea.
We quickly showered and dressed and got in the car for a drive from Pasadena back to Newport. Ani had GPS on her phone and had a pretty good idea of how to get to Newport anyway so we got there after about an hour. We dropped off my things at Spencer's house and got directions from him on how to get to the Peninsula so we could have a bit of lunch. Unfortunately I mis-interpreted the information (we turned left where he had said to turn right) and we ended up going the wrong way. This didnt turn into a huge disaster though, as the direction we were actually headed was for Balboa island, which I had loved on our first trip there and was quite keen for Ani to see. We found a parking space quite easily and I took Ani on the walk through the island to get the ferry over to the Peninsula. Luckily it was warming up a little, although it was still fairly cool in the breeze. We walked all along the pier and had a delicious burger at Ruby's diner at the end of the pier.
Ani had to get back on the road to try to beat the end of work traffic, so we walked back to the ferry, and Ani dropped me off at Spencer's before heading home. It had been pretty cool to see my friend from Cyprus, who I had just seen four weeks before actually in Cyprus, and then spend a couple of days with her on the other side of the world!
Spencer finished off some work bits and pieces that he had and then we headed out again to go to the Orange County Performing Arts Center. We went to watch In the Heights, which is a fairly new broadway musical. The dancing was excellent and the singing was fabulous. The story line was a bit thin and slow moving, so that was a down side, but it was still a very enjoyable experience.
We headed back home and set the world to rights over a bottle of red wine, before heading for bed to get some sleep ready for our big day today to go to Las Vegas!!
I arrived at around 10 past 9 and located the main entrance where I had agreed to meet Ani, and we found each other without any problems. We headed straight for the red line to take us to Hollywood and I bought a one way ticket.
In no time at all we had reached our destination, and we spent a few minutes looking at the Kodak theatre, where the Oscars are held every year, and the Chinese theatre next door. There was some filming going on in the front of the Chinese theatre, so we watched that for a bit. We were on the hunt for some bagels for breakfast when we walked past one of the tour guides offering a tour of the stars' homes. We bought a couple of tickets and headed off in the direction pointed out to us by the guide to find a cafe for breakfast. Stomachs filled with bagels and cream cheese we headed back to the meeting point for our tour.
The tour lasted about an hour and a half and took us around the extravagant mansions of Beverly Hills and Bel Air. I lost track of the number of houses that we saw and actually who they currently, or used to, belong to, but the tour also allowed us a 20 minute walk up and down Rodeo Drive, which was fun, with Ani and me stopping every so often to pose for trouristy pictures.
Our tour of the stars' homes came to and end and we wandered around the area, taking in the length of the Walk of Fame, where I was surprised to see that they have already earmarked a star for little old me, as they know I am going to be a big star someday soon. They did a mock up for me to see if I would be happy with it and I advised them that yes, that would do nicely please, and could I have my start near to Fred Astaire's please?
The celebrities were out in force, all clamouring to have their photographs with myself and Ani, two obviously extremely well known members of the Premiere Group. But Ani and I brushed off their requests, letting them know that we were far to busy and famous and popular to have our photos taken with them. Brad was quite upset about not being able to pose for a piccy with me, but his mate George consoled him and the went off with Angie for a drink in the Viper room to cheer themselves up.
Ani and I dodged and darted through the streets until we finally lost the now mob-like crowd of celebrity fans and found a small joint to have a plate of nachos in, before heading back on the metro to go to Ani's house in Pasadena.
It was a short walk from the train station to Ani's house, and once we were there I drank a glass of delicious lemonade and had a little nap on Ani's bed.
Soon enough Ani's husband came home from work, and Ani lent me a pair of sky scraper heel shoes and we went off for dinner. Dinner was at a Japanese Gyu Kaku restaurant where you grill your own food. We started off with a japanese beer, and a bit of banter with one of the rather friendly locals called Tony, and then we moved to our table where Ani and I ordered a bottle of hot Sake and Areck took care of the cooking of the food. The food was great, with the meats being marinated in delicious sauces and coming off the grill very tender and tasty. We took our time over dinner and filled ourselves almost to the brim on the all you can eat menu, but leaving just enough room for some 'smores'. Ani and Areck explained to me the concept of 'smores'. It stands for 'some more' as in, 'I want some more' because they are so tasty. They are melted marshmallows that you get a special fork to melt them with over the fire (the fork is extendable - very clever to avoid burnt fingers) and then placing the melted marshmallow in between to buiscuits (crackers in american) and a slice of chocolate (hersheys). I am not a fan of marshmallow or hersheys chocolate, but I thought it would only be proper to give it a go. I chickened out on the marshmallow melting and didnt get mine to the gooey golden consistency that the others did, but it did melt the chocolate to a certain extent and I got the overall idea.
I only had one bite though and set the rest down. Ani had been promising to take me to a place called 'cherry on top' for desert so I was kinda holding out for that anyway.
We left the restaurant and took the short car drive down to 'cherry on top'. Cherry on top is a great place wher you serve your own frozen yogurt into a cup (I had some taster pots so I could choose which flavour I wanted - I chose belgian chocolate) and then in the middle of the place was a huge table full of bits and pieces that you could add to your frozen yogurt. They had strawberries and blueberries, and raspberries and any berry you could imagine. Mango, pineapple, banana, peanuts, walnuts, any other kind of nut you could want, chocolate sprinkles, hundreds and thousands, sauces, cream..... anything your heart could desire. I chose a combo of strawberries, mango and nuts, and then went to pay for the yogurt, which is charged by weight. It was great, a delicious end to the evening meal.
We then went home and chilled in front of rubbish American TV - but we did get to see the amazing ten year old opera singer on America's got talent. If you havent you tubed it yet, you should, it is quite unbelievable!
Areck's family had kindly set up a sofa bed in one of the rooms for me, so I crawled in to bed and drifted off to sleep.
The next day Ani and I woke after all the working people of the house had left and pottered around the house eating breakfast and I had a lovely cup of tea.
We quickly showered and dressed and got in the car for a drive from Pasadena back to Newport. Ani had GPS on her phone and had a pretty good idea of how to get to Newport anyway so we got there after about an hour. We dropped off my things at Spencer's house and got directions from him on how to get to the Peninsula so we could have a bit of lunch. Unfortunately I mis-interpreted the information (we turned left where he had said to turn right) and we ended up going the wrong way. This didnt turn into a huge disaster though, as the direction we were actually headed was for Balboa island, which I had loved on our first trip there and was quite keen for Ani to see. We found a parking space quite easily and I took Ani on the walk through the island to get the ferry over to the Peninsula. Luckily it was warming up a little, although it was still fairly cool in the breeze. We walked all along the pier and had a delicious burger at Ruby's diner at the end of the pier.
Ani had to get back on the road to try to beat the end of work traffic, so we walked back to the ferry, and Ani dropped me off at Spencer's before heading home. It had been pretty cool to see my friend from Cyprus, who I had just seen four weeks before actually in Cyprus, and then spend a couple of days with her on the other side of the world!
Spencer finished off some work bits and pieces that he had and then we headed out again to go to the Orange County Performing Arts Center. We went to watch In the Heights, which is a fairly new broadway musical. The dancing was excellent and the singing was fabulous. The story line was a bit thin and slow moving, so that was a down side, but it was still a very enjoyable experience.
We headed back home and set the world to rights over a bottle of red wine, before heading for bed to get some sleep ready for our big day today to go to Las Vegas!!
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